Wednesday, October 12, 2005

May Our Father In Heaven Grant All Of Us...

If Love Blinds, Could You Imagine What Hate does?

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Some good news Boruch Hashem.

Justice was served, at least partially, the day before Yom Kippur. A Jerusalem District Court ordered the state to pay activist Noam Federman NIS 100,000 compensation for false arrest for alleged terrorist activity in recent years.

Federman as you may all know was the victim of an illegal house arrest that spanned 2 years and was subject to unjust incarceration and abuse.

Some good news? I think so. However there are those who feel that the event was a miscarriage of justice. There are also those who feel that the world is flat and that Martians will be collecting us in due time.

Duration of House Arrest according to Arutz 7:2 YearsHaaretz’s:Many Months

Arutz 7’s reason for house arrest:The government alleged that Federman was involved in an attempted bombing of an Arab school in eastern Jerusalem. Although Federman continued to deny the charges against him,Haaretz’s:Federman was charged more than three years ago for his alleged role in a 2002 attempt to detonate a bomb-laden trailer at a girls' school in East Jerusalem and for his membership in the Jewish terrorist cell allegedly behind the attempted attack.

According to Ha’aretz, Federman is a far-right activist who resides in West Bank city of Hebron (in case you didn’t know where Chevron was – its in questionable land).

According to Peace Now chairman Yariv Oppenheimer, many Palestinians spend several years in administrative detention and have never been indicted.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Our Unknowing Contributor

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. It is a day of abstention, of prayer and meditation, of introspection, soul-searching and repentance. It is called the Sabbath of Sabbaths - the ultimate day of spirit and serenity. Jews dress in white (men usually wear a white robe called a "kitel" together with a white head covering during the synagogue service; women wear white blouses and/or skirts and no jewelry) as a sign of purity and as a sign of our mortality, for ultimately we are buried in white shrouds. The white garments are also a reminder of the costume of the High Priest worn on Yom Kippur during most of the Yom Kippur service in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The main service was conducted then and there with the High Priest wearing the four white garments - shirt, pants, belt and hat - without the four gold garments - the long coat, the breastplate, the head plate and the apron - that he ordinarily wore in performing his Temple duties. The gold garments are not worn on this day of asking forgiveness because they represent hubris, human majesty and are a potential reminder of the sin of the Golden Calf. Yom Kippur is a day of humility and a low and private profile. Fancy garments, especially gold garments, are really out of place and contrary to the prevailing spirit of this holy day.On Yom Kippur, Jews abstain from doing any work, from eating and drinking, from marital relations, from wearing leather shoes and from washing one's body. Maimonidies classifies these abstentions as forms of "rest," for Yom Kippur is the ultimate day of rest - the Sabbath of Sabbaths. We rest from the world and our ordinary necessities on this day. The day is marked with this atmosphere of serenity, coupled with a seriousness of purpose, though not with any tinge of sadness. For it is on this day that we have our sins erased and forgiven, and thus it is an occasion of joy and not one of sadness. We confess our sins in the prayer services of Yom Kippur nine times (including the afternoon Mincha prayer before Yom Kippur) and we beseech heavenly understanding of our frailties and weaknesses. We also pledge ourselves to try and improve and to become better Jews and finer human beings. However, all of these confessions refer only to sins between our Creator and us - the sins it is within the power of Yom Kippur to absolve. Yet, Yom Kippur does not absolve sins that were committed against our fellow human beings. Those sins are erased only when the wronged party forgives us our acts or statements.Thus it is customary for Jews before the advent of the Yom Kippur day to seek out those who they may have possibly wronged during the course of the year and request their understanding and forgiveness. It is wrong for a Jew to withhold such forgiveness if sincerely asked to do so. Only if we are willing to forgive each other can we then, in good conscience, ask God to forgive our sins as well.In the times of the Temple in Jerusalem, the afternoon of Yom Kippur was a time for matchmaking for those interested in finding proper mates. It was felt that the holiness of the day would be a positive influence on those involved and allow them to find their true physical and spiritual soul mates. The enemies of Israel always marked Yom Kippur as a special day of hatred towards the Jews. From the execution of Rabbi Akiva by the Romans on Yom Kippur in Caeserea in 139CE, to the Holocaust and to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Yom Kippur carries stark memories for the people of Israel. These memories have also been woven into the prayers of the day. The Kol Nidrei prayer that introduces the Yom Kippur prayer services has overtones of the plight of the Jewish conversos of Spain after the expulsion of 1492. This prayer nullifies false vows and coerced undertakings and allows all of Israel, sinners and saints, to pray as one. There is perhaps no other day on the Jewish calendar that so unifies the Jewish people as Yom Kippur. It creates social amity, the repairing of relationships between human beings, service of God and a sense of personal immortality and connection with the generations past and future. Yom Kippur is the quintessential Jewish day, unmatched and not replicated by any other faith or nation in the world.Shabat Shalom and fast wellBerel Wein

of G-d and his people (part2)

..I decided to write a few essays covering the topic of our relationship with HaShem.I assume many of you will ignore them ,some of you will enjoy and that most of you could be offended.But know this I love G-d, perhaps not as you do; to me He is part of my family and as such subject to things "family". On most Shabusim in many Askanaze* shuls there is a tradition to say Av Harachmem (a prayer for the extraction of revenge from our enemies). In my Shul as in many others when the Rebba is not there; on an occasion which may or may not need Av Harachmem to be said, Jews are ‘nohag’ to fight about it.

Well one week this summer the Rebba was upstate and it was one of those occasions, the gloves were off and most of the shul could NOT have cared less. But one guest kept yelling “No Av Harachmem, no Av Harachmem, this week there is no Av Harachmem”. And so keeping with tradition I broke into fight mode “Av Harachmem, Av Harachmem, this week there IS Av Harachmem”.

Guest’s Logic: That evening was going to be Tisha a’Bov and normally Tachnun (prayer for repenting) is not said on the day before Tisha a’Bov; since Av Harachmem is not said on a day Tachnun is not said, Av Harachmem was not to be said.

Me’s Logic: His math was correct aside for one over sight Tachnun is said when WE sin. Av Harachmem is said when HE sins, since it was right before the most destructive day of Jewish history we said the prayer.

Remember Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"?

Monday, October 10, 2005

ASPCA Amshinov Office

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There are people against Shluging Kaporos with a chicken. And I have always felt that the theory to abort this tradition due to its pagan nature is rubbish.Plenty of our habits, laws and traditions mimic paganism and are not under fire.And so for years I followed my ancestors in this high holy days’ ceremony.Until this year . . .NO LONGER WILL THERE BE THE SHLUGING OF CHICKENS IN AMSHINOV.Because some "entrepreneur" left 200 chickens caged over Shabus, with no food or water on Nostrand avenue in Brooklyn. By Shabus morning most of them were dead.One ecscaped and got caught in a sewer drain.I’m no tree hugger butTZAR BAH’LAY CHAIM is no small sin.The Ari (a proponent of Shluging with chickens) never killed a fly, he allowed rodents to run free in his home, he would not rip a leaf off a tree.WHAT WOULD HE SAY TO THIS?You want pagan rituals , suffering animals is pagan.